Human Face Of Science

Fedor Karginov

PhD in Biochemistry

Original Country: Russia

Laboratory:Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

When: Février 2010

Usually I don’t have much trouble reading people. Their body language is always more or less clear to me. With Fedor Karginov, I had no clue. When he contacted me to be in my project, I was glad for his interest, but at the same time I had no picture in my head…

For this project, when I don’t know the person I am going to photograph, I ask him or her to bring any item to show a passion or hobby. He came without anything. At this point, I was lost in the dark and just talked about myself. After the shoot, as I need to know a little about all my subjects, I started a conversation with him. He talked about his arrival in the US from Russia when he was a teenager, about his daughter, but in the end, I was more lost than at the beginning.

After a few weeks, I decided to ask him to go for a coffee, just to dig deeper. At the end of the conversation, I had to confess that he remained quite impenetrable to me. He smiled broadly, and said: “So write it.” And that’s what I did, because, after all, he is right.

Akiko Kobayashi

PhD in Pharmaceutical Science

Original Country: Japan

Laboratory: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

When: February 2010

Every time I passed in front of Akiko Kobayashi’s office, located behind a great glass panel, I was touched by her aura of discretion and sweetness. She always seemed to want to hide herself under a curtain of her hair, or to curl up into her armchair. The only out-of-context detail was her look, curious of everything, keen and penetrating, open on the world.

When she agreed to sit for this project, I specifically asked her to come without any prop, to be able to capture only a reflection of what I had seen in her.

Adrian Krainer

PhD in Biochemistry

Original Country: Uruguay

Laboratory:Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

When: January 2011

Adrian Krainer is one of the world’s leading specialists in RNA study, and a volleyball fanatic as well. He is a man of incredible courtesy and kindness. Never will he say « no » to a member of his scientific team. He will rather express his disagreement by saying: « I don’t think this is a good idea. » But let him step on the court and nothing matters anymore. He metamorphoses into a fearsome opponent, ready to fight, fiery, borderline aggressive.

At first, I wanted to create a half-man half-ball image. Doctor Krainer vs Mister Volleyball. But I settled for a more Shakespearean approach: Volley or not volley?

Keerthi Krishnan

PhD in Molecular Biology

Original Country:India

Laboratory:Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

When: December 2010

The first time I met her, I shot a football right in her face… A peculiar introduction, indeed, but quite to the point, in fact! Keerthi Krishnan is a football buff. She possesses an encyclopedic knowledge of the subject: teams, strategies, offside, bump and run…

Just by observing a game, she can predict its outcome. She is always happy to watch a game with friends, on one condition: nobody talks, except about football. If she chooses one day to give up science, she would have a brilliant future as a bookmaker.